Tim Mälzer now also has a star – at least in his collection of guests on his culinary podcast “Fiete Gastro”. In the current episode, Tim Mälzer has to make his guest, i.e. me, taste the dishes that I have prepared.
There is Lithuanian food: pink soup, a cold beetroot soup that has the unpronounceable name Šaltibarščiai (pronounced: Schaltibarschtschäi) with many special characters. For simplicity’s sake, we call it pink soup here because its coloring is unmistakable. Deep-fried sourdough bread with lots of garlic and cheese salad with grated Emmental cheese, eggs and mayonnaise. Mälzer really likes it. He also quickly knows in which direction he is heading – namely to Eastern Europe. And with a few clues as to who cooked it so royally.
For ten years I interviewed Tim Mälzer on various topics: We talked about how the cost of a schnitzel in his restaurant is made up, about sexism in the catering industry and how it can be remedied – and about how to analyze a dish that you never eaten before. Now the TV chef and co-host Sebastian Merget are turning the tables – and asking me the questions: How do you prepare for an interview with Tim Mälzer? Doesn’t the media have a destructive power when it comes to restaurant reviews? And why is it that there are so few women in top restaurants?
The TV chef also uses a quiet tone in the podcast episode. He says that he is actually a feminist – but no one believes it and that he sometimes doesn’t dare to say it out loud. “I am a feminist,” says Mälzer. “But I also had to learn to adapt my language.” In the Stern interview he once said: “The quick saying that may have been meant to be funny in the past no longer comes from my lips today because I have become much more reflective. I don’t want anyone to feel harassed by me. But I can’t always prevent that because I’m a loud person.”
We also talk about why so few women work in leading positions in star restaurants. I confront Mälzer with a statement he made in a previous podcast with the Swiss chef Elif Oskan. He said he found it stupid that women were turning their backs on star restaurants and hiding in the pâtisserie. I think this statement is nonsense and point out that star gastronomy is based on a patriarchal system that makes it difficult for women to gain a foothold in it. Will Mälzer, Merget and I come to a common consensus?
You can listen to the entire podcast at Audio Now and on all common podcast platforms such as Spotify or iTunes!
Transparency note: Like Audio Now, stern is part of RTL Germany